Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1887-12-18
BUSINESS MEN,.
A LITTLE MATTER WHICH MERITS THEIR
PROPOUND-ATTBNTION
A Few Pointed Remarks About Wasts-Baskst Ad-
vGtSing-HOw Thousands Of Dollars are
Thrown Away By Our Merchants.

llrOWn away y! VUI heIVIaAS"
This is the time of year when merchants,
especially those in the retail trade, are par
ticularly anxious to call the attention Of
the public to what they have for sale. And
this being so, the REGISTER desires to be
heard for a brief period upon the sub
ject of advertising, to the end that
the channel through which is to be
obtained the largest return for the money
invested may be pointed out. This
channel undoubtedly lies in the daily
newspapers of the city. Through the col
umns of these journals, seen daily by almost
every inhabitant of the town and its sub
urbs who has intelligence enough TO read,
the merchant has a reasonably cheap and
absolutely certain means of communica-
ting with the public, and thus gets value
received for his outlay, but when any other
method of accomplishing the same end IL
sought and tried, the result is dissatisfac-
ton, anguish and tears. Money is wasted,
time is frritlessly spent, and golden oppor-
t~unities are allowed to pass by-otten to
the serious embarrassment of the we'll
meaning but misguided advertiser--who
has, perchance, been made the victim OF
some plausible scheme, or has fallen into
some well baited trap, and to the sufferers
by this sort of thing this article holds out a
warning.
One of the most familiar Of these aiver-
Using methods-and n of the most worth
less-is the old-time circular, hanG-bill or
dodger. There was a time in the history
OF the world when these things were valu-
able to the business man OF the general
advertiser, but that time has long-siDce pass
ed. To embark now in that sort Of adver-
Using is as near absolute u~selessness as it is
possible to get. For instance, every one
has seen here in Wheeling, during times of
great popular demonstrations like parades
or reunions, the streets fairly carpeted
all over town with thousands of circulars
of all sizes and colors, not one of which
ever raw any other eye than that of the
printer. In every case the money was
absolutely and literally thrown away,
while the expenditure of one half the sum
iu inserting a modest card in the daily
papers would have brought substantial
returns.
Upon this subject the Philadelphia
Times recently said;
This is the season of the year when the
grandson of his grandfather and fogy bust
ness men generally waste thousands OF
dollars by waste. basket advertising They
seldom advertise in newspapers which now
20 into every family and arc accepted by
all as the legitimate medium for trade to
reach the people. They don't advertise
because their grandfathers didn't do it,
obviously forgetful of the fact that those
grandfathers had no newspapers of general
circulation through which to reach the
public. A few of them now and then ven
ture in newspaper advertising and, true to
their grandfathers' ideas, they hunt for
what they suppose to be cheap advertising,
and they end in paying half as much for
an advertisement that reaches a few thou
sands as it would cost to reach ten times
as many offs much more thrifty class.
1.-THE strong hold of the grandson of his
grandfather in advertising, or what he
D to be advertising, is for the waste
basket. He gets up five or ten or twenty
thousand circulars, such rs bis grand
father got mp when circulars were a neces-
sity in the absence Of generally circulated
newspapers; he gets them printed accord
ing TO his fancy; he puts then in envel-
opes; he stamps them with a single stamp
which requires them to go ont unseaied;
he sends them to the post Office, whence
are delivered from house to house only TO
be thrown into the waste basket by the
servants. The open circular is known to
he m advertisement and from o
Eogy dealer, and they 90 their way
into the waste basket in nineteen houses
out cftweDty without even attracting the
curiosity of the servant. These circulars,
if OF the cheapest kind, cost including
postage, printing and envelopes, Sl.50 for
100; SIS for LOCO; $50 for 10000, or
$500 for %, 900, and not one in fifty isread
or sven seen by the customers they are
expected to reach. The grandson OF his
grandfather doesn't seem TO know that for
$50, the cost Of 10, 900 Of the cheapest cir
culars which are seldon opened and never
read, would place nearly a column adver-
tisement in the three most widely read
newspapers of Philadelphia, where 1t would
reach more than a quarter million OF bopa
ide subscribers or purchasers, aud where
it would be likely to be seen by q full mill
len readers. 1t is thus that the grandson
of his grand tafher wastes money IN waste
basket advertising.
'"Fhen there is another class Of the bu:i.
ness grandsons OF their grandfathers. They
are progressive; they mean to advertise by
circulars to attract attention; they under
stand that unsealed circulars 90 Into the
waste-basket, and they get upa pretty Cur
cular, seal 1t In the envelope, mail i ard
congratulate themselves that they hare
made a grand stroke Of business progress.
And how does their account stand?
Their circulars including postage, print
ing and envelopes, cost 3 cents EACH IS
for 100; $50 for / 900; $500 for 10000 and
$500 for 10000. The 1900 paid for TO-
600 sealed circulars, most Of which are
pitched into the waste baske. a soon
as opened, would pay for q col
umn advertisement in every morning
newspaper published in Philadelphia,
whereby over 100000 subscribers or pur-
chasers would be reached, and nearly a
million and and a half Of readers secured:
and taking $500, the cost of 1900 sealed
circulars, which seek the waste basket, a
column advertisement could be put in
every newspaper in Philadelphia morning
and evening, Sc the highest rates and in